I Say Liberal, You Say Liberalish

The number one topic in the blogosphere the past couple of days has been just what Atrios of Eschaton meant when he called liberal Christians liberalish. Allen, one of the liberal Christians at The Village Gate, took it this way. Chuck Currie concurred that “Atrios Has a Religion Problem.” Patriotboy came to Atrios’ defense. Atrios tries to clarify.

We’re more intrigued by Chuck Currie’s post on a new “Religion Blog” created by The Oregonian, Oregon’s biggest paper. Currie concedes that the blog’s author, Jim Slagle, is a lively writer, but he challenges Slagle’s qualifications to act as general religion blogger for a major paper. Slagle, he writes, is a conservative Christian. And while conservative Christians certainly ought to have a voice in such an endeavor, they shouldn’t provide the only voice.

We agree. But the fact remains that Slagle is a good, knowledgable writer, and he seems determined to be fair to beliefs other than his own. And The Oregonian has done something unusual by having a religion blog at all.

In the entrenched world of American newspaper journalism, putting time and resources into religion reporting is a liberalish project, so perhaps it’s just fine that The Oregonian has given the task to a conservatish Christian.